How Does Steinbeck Brought Greed

If you had the chance to emerge from the depths of civilization and be accepted among the rest of society, would you take that chance? Would you risk your family and everything you have to obtain this new life? Kino had this chance when he found the “pearl of the World” In John Steinbeck’s novel, The Pearl. The question was raised on whether or not the pearl is evil or honest. I believe that the pearl is evil, because it brought greed and evil into Kino’s life. The lifestyle that the pearl promised changed Kino from a simple family man to a man that cared for nothing more than his precious pearl. It caused him to put his desires and greed before the care and safety of his family. It also changed him from a man that felt safe in his home

One example is the quote, “He felt cloth, struck at it with his knife, and missed, and struck again and felt his knife go through cloth, and then his head crashed with lightning and exploded with pain” (Steinbeck 37 and 38). This piece of textual evidence shows that Kino has been transformed from a man who has always been secure in his small town to a man that was attacked in the safety of his home. The pearl has brought crime and pain into Kino, Juana, and Coyotito’s lives. Another point that shows Kino’s transformation because of the evil of the pearl is in chapter 5 when Juana runs away with the pearl to rid the small family of its evil, and is attacked by Kino in the process. One example is the quote, “Her arm was up to throw when he leapt at her and caught her arm and wretched the pearl from her. He struck her in the face with his clenched fist and she fell among the boulders” (Steinbeck 58 and 59). This piece of evidence shows that the evil within the pearl has caused Kino to strike his wife, which is something he never would have done before. He was so worried about losing the pearl and all of its promises, that he brought pain and harm into his family’s

There are those who believe the pearl only brought out the evil and greed from within Kino. They believe that the pearl itself is not evil, but that it merely exposed what was already deep within Kino. An example of this would be the quote,”What will you do now that you have become a rich man...We will be married...We will have new clothes...And, perhaps, a rifle” (Steinbeck 24 and 25). You can tell that he had been thinking of having these luxuries for a long time, and now they are all spilling out after the discovery of the pearl. He starts by listing small items, but once he discovers he can have all of those things, they aren’t enough. He needs more, so he continues until he ends with something that would be impossible for him to acquire in his current life; a rifle. This side of the argument is conveying that the pearl didn’t actually bring greed to Kino’s life, it just stripped away the Kino we all knew to show what was really